Reviews tagging 'Mental illness'

Ariadne by Jennifer Saint

51 reviews

whatjasread's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

• this had a rough start, but picked up around 1/4 through
• i liked ariadne, although i felt like i liked her mostly because of how everybody interacted with her rather than because of her as a person
• phaedra was very interesting to follow too
• very morally grey characters -- you root for them because they deserve better but then they do awful things and you can't justify your support
• i enjoy learning the in depth versions of greek mythology, especially because we only ever learn the basics where the women were the problem, or where theseus was a great hero
• overall, it was a decent story but i felt detached from it quite a lot of the time

TWs: blood, child neglect, child abuse, death of animal, animal cruelty, lying about rape, gore, pregnancy, miscarriage, post-natal depression, rape, child death, emotional abuse, incest, sexism, body horror, abandonment, suicide (hanging)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Gore, Suicide, Child death, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Sexism, Emotional abuse, and Mental illness

Moderate: Blood, Abandonment, Rape, Pregnancy, Incest, and Body horror

Minor: Miscarriage

danajoy's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful sad

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Death, Pregnancy, Alcohol, Grief, and Suicide

Moderate: Death of parent, Rape, Mental illness, Violence, and War

ka_ke's review against another edition

emotional relaxing slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

1.0

Ariadne does not live up to the hype. It’s not only slow paced, but it’s too slowly paced in my opinion. I found it very difficult to maintain my interest and the characters seemed undeveloped. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Grief, Abandonment, Mental illness, Death, Adult/minor relationship, and Blood

Moderate: Religious bigotry, Violence, War, Rape, and Sexism

Minor: Pregnancy

ourxstorybegins's review against another edition

3.75

I have mixed feelings on this one. It took me some time to get through and was definitely pretty dense. This was a retelling of the story of the family of the Minotaur, but from the perspective of the two younger sisters, Ariadne and Phaedra. It took place over the course of about fifteen years, from the introduction of Theseus into their lives all the way to when Ariadne was turned to stone by Perseus. 

My main struggle is that this book was advertised by a lot of folks as a “feminist retelling” and....I don’t really know where that comes from, other than the fact that it gives us a chance to see the perspective and motivations of these two women. 

Some Highlights: 

• I absolutely loved Phaedra. I was hooked from the moment I started to get to read her perspective. I could empathize with her situation a lot more than Ariadne’s
• I think the characterization of Dionysus as someone stuck between the feelings that come with being mortal and the expectations that come with being a god was really interesting. I liked watching Ariadne struggle with seeing him change from being basically human to being just as bad as the other gods.
• I really liked the epilogue. I obviously won’t get too detailed in that, but I thought if it had to end the way it did, the epilogue was a nice touch.

The main struggle with this is that, at the end of the day, everything about these two women were done at the hands of men. Their deaths were both a result of them finally taking an active role in their stories. I think the author wanted to stay true to the mythology, and that’s great, but it just led to a painful demise for both of these women who the author had me rooting for throughout the book.
 
ESCAPES RATING: 
Enjoyment - 6 | Start - 7 | Characters - 8 | Atmosphere - 5 | Plot - 6 | End - 6 | Style - 7
 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide and Child death

Moderate: Pregnancy and Mental illness

Minor: Sexual content

alexisgarcia's review against another edition

adventurous dark sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This book was overall really good. It has beautiful writing and vulnerable characters. The retelling of the original story was very well done in my opinion. However, there were some issues I found. First, it was very slow paced and kinda hard to get into. I struggled to want to read this book everyday which prolonged the reading process. This was my main issue and the others were very small. Overall, the greek tragedies were absolutely heartbreaking which shows how phenomenal the writing is that I felt pain from the hardships. This is what really made the book for me. I would recommend this book 100%, just chug through the beginning lol.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Animal death, Blood, Child death, Abandonment, Death, Death of parent, Gore, Incest, Violence, Animal cruelty, Grief, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Murder, Pregnancy, Rape, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, and War

booksandmo's review against another edition

adventurous emotional slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Blood, Death of parent, Child death, Misogyny, Murder, Animal death, and Death

Moderate: Alcohol, Sexual content, Abandonment, Grief, Gore, Mental illness, Pregnancy, Rape, and Violence

Minor: Incest

kathleencoughlin's review against another edition

slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.25

I feel like this was risky given the success that Madeline Miller has with the greek mythology retellings and I don't really think it paid off. There were some interesting ideas here, but I never really felt compelled to continue the story and I had a hard time caring about the characters all that much. The little connection Ariadne had with Perceus at the end felt a little out if left field since this was literally the first time they'd met.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Animal cruelty, and Misogyny

Moderate: Suicide, Alcohol, Blood, Child death, and Rape

Minor: Mental illness, Sexual assault, Domestic abuse, Sexual violence, and War

erin_forgie's review against another edition

emotional relaxing sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

A lot of people are comparing this to Madeline Millers circe, while they contain the same bases (feminist greek mythology re-telling). The way that Madeline Miller introduced each character was better. With Miller I didnt have to research a character as she would tell me who they were and what they did. Whereas with Saint I had to do some research, this didnt make me rate it any lower as I am really interested in greek mythology but for someone who may not be I would recommend Circe over Ariadne. 
I also loved Phaedra’s perspective in the book.
The way that the author portrayed

post partum depression

was unreal. I cried at the end

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Death, and Mental illness

josieruby1's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful informative mysterious sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Violence, Toxic relationship, Sexism, Murder, and Gore

Moderate: Suicide, Alcohol, Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Death, Grief, Mental illness, and Death of parent

Minor: Sexual violence, Sexual assault, and Rape

dazzling_aurora's review against another edition

dark emotional sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Alcoholism, Animal death, Sexual harassment, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Mental illness

Minor: Child death and War